No. The bill originated in the House. However, it was an unrelated bill on veterans issues. The Senate took that bill number as a shell, substituted the healthcare language and rammed that through reconciliation. The House did ultimately vote on it... but the original language was not on the bill originated by the House.
I believe, don’t quote me on this, that they cannot substantially change the language of a bill without going through committee. The more we read and know about how this bill came to life, the more corrupt it seems.
That is entirely correct. In theory, the Supremes could rule that the Senate's replacement of a bill in whole with completely unrelated text constitutes a new bill and thus violates the Constitution's requirement that tax bills originate in the House. In practice, we'll lose on this one because it has been done and tolerated many times. It's a shame too - freedom was a wonderful idea while it lasted.